By Gary Perlman

The administration of Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike's ties with real estate giant Mitsui Fudosan -- bending of regulations, highly discounted sale of public land, approval of massive commercial towers on taxpayer property -- are coming under growing scrutiny in the Japanese media amid a shocking lack of governance.

The Tokyo government is pursuing an immense redevelopment project on the site of the former Tsukiji fish market, a taxpayer-owned waterfront area of over 194,000m2 representing the last prime location of its size in the nation's capital. Its key location near both the city's central business district and upscale Ginza shopping area, along with its status as a popular tourist area in its own right, make this a project of keen interest for Tokyo and indeed the nation, with the potential to change the city's landscape and define it anew. It will feature new transport links, including a new train line and boats directly to Haneda Airport, creating a new gateway to the city. As the development of this public property, once built, will remain in place for generations to come, this is truly a once-in-a-century opportunity.

So what is the city planning for its citizens? A public park in this least green of major global cities? An arts complex? A unique Tokyo landmark?

In fact, the city announced in April that the 900 billion yen ($5.8 billion) development will feature a 50,000-seat multipurpose stadium, commercial facilities, and yet more of the residential and office skyscrapers that have been sprouting up throughout the city, utterly transforming the low-lying neighborhood into a vast entertainment and business area. The coveted project was awarded to a group spearheaded by real estate giant Mitsui Fudosan (MF), a name that has popped up with unusual frequency in recent years in connection with large city-led projects.

The announcement came as no surprise to many. For one thing, the Nikkei, Bloomberg and other outlets had linked MF with the project as early as last autumn despite a competition nominally lasting until this March, suggesting that the matter had effectively been decided at that point; no other name was ever mentioned other than the eleventh-hour disclosure of a rival bid by NHK for an anime-themed project, which quickly vanished. The government has been tight-lipped as to the selection process: it still has not revealed the name of other bidders, the contents of the bids, or other details allowing for a fair evaluation by the public. This makes it impossible to know if the government is even asking the right questions, such as whether a sports stadium is appropriate for the area and whether another line of towering buildings is truly the best use of public property for the city and its citizens.

As MF is also partial owner of Tokyo Dome, various media, including the Nikkei, NHK and numerous sports newspapers, have voiced suspicions that the company is using the opportunity to move its present stadium out of its Korakuen home to make room for more towers in that area, thus benefiting twice over. (Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, owner of the Tokyo Dome-based Yomiuri Giants baseball team, is partnered with MF in the Tsukiji project. It has denied, according to the Mainichi Shimbun, that the Tsukiji plan is predicated on a transfer of the Dome but has not ruled out the possibility.)

More worrisome is the possibility that the government's approval of high-end residential and office towers on public land will allow private developers to siphon profits from the taxpayer and put the money into their own pockets, especially as the housing is likely to be priced well beyond the reach of most citizens. The lack of governance in the murky decision-making process is itself a concern: the government's project plan asked bidders specifically "not to include construction plans of condo complex, etc. in the proposal," but that appears to have been ignored. The tallest tower is estimated from MF's project image to be around 300 meters or over 60 stories, implying if true a special dispensation from the government as it would considerably exceed the height limit for the area under current aviation law.

In addition, architectural economist Takashi Moriyama expressed concern in the daily Nikkan Gendai over the leasing deal for the land, which he says reflected the easier terms usually offered for residential properties despite the project's stadium, hotels, offices and commercial space. He feels that the deal is remarkably generous to the developer and speaks of "invisible dynamics" at work.

Tsukiji is no aberration. The city has handed MF the rights to an increasing number of high-profile public projects in recent years. Not coincidentally, the MF Group has hired no fewer than 14 former Tokyo government officials into its ranks, including two former directors of the Urban Development Bureau, as reported by Japanese Investor Online. Providing cushy private-sector jobs to former government workers with their strong inside connections is hardly unknown in Japan -- it has its own word, amakudari ("descent from heaven") -- but the scale of MF's efforts is eye-raising, particularly given the number of massive projects it has secured with the city.

MF's redevelopment work for Jingu Gaien attracted unwanted attention nationwide with its plan to rip out a large number of the area's famed ginkgo trees, which are on public land. Most of the land to be developed in that case, however, is privately owned by Meiji Jingu, a religious organization whose trustees include none other than Governor Koike and MF's former chairman Hiromichi Iwasa. The project will include rugby and baseball stadiums and two commercial skyscrapers of 185 and 190 meters, equivalent to around a 58-story building. As an urban park, the area was subject to various regulations on usage and building height. As with Tsukiji, rules appear to have been bent to allow for the construction of skyscrapers.

Questions were raised by the stark difference in bids for the project. For example, Tokyo-based Shukan Shincho points out that three groups submitted bids for construction of the rugby stadium. A group led by general contractor Shimizu bid 22.6 billion yen and a Mitsubishi Estate group about 35.8 billion yen. By comparison, the MF group's winning bid came to 8.2 billion yen.

This startlingly low figure was linked in the article with questions over MF's relations with the Tokyo government, especially in light of its subsequent success in winning other public projects. In the end, a petition by outraged residents, backed by a UNESCO advisory body, attracted over one million signees objecting to the destruction of the environment and the overwhelming scale of the buildings in the low-rise neighborhood. This achieved rare success in prompting Koike to halt the project for now, forcing a rethink. The outcome remains to be seen.

MF has also been tapped for redevelopment of Harumi Flag, the area that served as the athletes village for the Tokyo Olympics. Data in the Shukan Shincho show that Tokyo sold the city-owned property to a MF-led group for an astonishingly low 12.96 billion yen or less than 10% of the standard land price in the neighborhood, essentially handing 120 billion yen (over $757 million) in taxpayer money to private developers. That provoked a lawsuit by residents as well as an appeal to the Fair Trade Commission over potential bid-rigging, their lawyers maintaining that there was "reasonable suspicion of collusion" between the city and developers. The courts ultimately ruled in favor of the city in March.

MF is also involved in the redevelopment of Hibiya Park, a taxpayer-owned space that opened in 1903 as the nation's first Western-style urban park. Kyoritsu Women's University lecturer Michiko Ai, head of the Group to Protect Roadside Trees, complains that developers have already destroyed the park's famed 400-square-meter rose garden with its hundreds of rose bushes and intends to uproot scores of trees in order to build a direct link from the park into MF's Hibiya Midtown property. The MF-led Tokyo Cross Park Vision calls for construction of four skyscrapers connected to the park, including the soon-to-be redeveloped Imperial Hotel on land partially owned by MF. Such projects, she warns, not only eradicate precious public space but will intensify the "heat island effect" in the city. (Toyo Keizai Online, an economic news site, has pointed to similar concerns for Tsukiji. It quotes the Tokyo Meteorological Agency as saying that the construction of high-rise buildings has blocked the wind path from the sea, pushing temperatures in Tokyo up at twice the rate of cities less affected by urbanization.) MF's website speaks of "neighborhood creation by MF", but perhaps this should be read "creation of MF neighborhoods".

How MF has been fortunate enough to secure this volume of top projects on or adjacent to taxpayer land from the Koike administration is not clear, though media speculation is rife given the lack of external oversight. The company's plans thus far, with Koike's backing, have without exception included the construction of vast tower blocks. Critics have lambasted the Tsukiji vision as making the historic area indistinguishable from Shinjuku, Shibuya, Marunouchi, Toranomon, Shiodome and other hot spots, not to mention Singapore and Hong Kong. While the stadium can at least make a claim to be in the public interest, the same cannot be said for the residences and offices, which will effectively hand control of taxpayer land over to private interests. Most grating is the impression that Tokyo citizens are being deprived of a voice in the matter for the sake of a private corporation. The media are reporting rising pushback from residents.

MF's connection with the Koike administration is coming under increased scrutiny by taxpayers and the media. Lawsuits and media criticism aside, Tokyo needs to decide just what kind of place it wants to be for its citizens. As the Shukan Shincho quipped, Tokyoites First, the political party founded by Koike, appears at present little more than an empty slogan.

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Profile

Gary Perlman is a Tokyo-based translator, writer and producer. His works have included A Fall Guy (English script/producer, NY Off Broadway), I Got Merman (English script, Hakuhinkan Theater), A Kabuki Christmas Carol (writer, Tokyo), UK Royal Ballet's A Soldier's Tale (producer, New National Theatre, Tokyo), and When Gary Met Lily (writer/performer, Fuji TV). His writings include Kabuki English programs for Ichikawa Ebizo (now Danjuro XIII) and Ichikawa Somegoro (now Koshiro X). He contributed the Japan chapter for "The Oxford Handbook of the Global Stage Musical" (Oxford University Press), released this year. A Kabuki version of Madame Butterfly, conceived and planned by Mr. Perlman, will open at Kyoto's Minamiza Theatre in December.